Dr. Johnson fought for him nobly.
Twenty thousand people signed a petition for his pardon. Consequently, when the ill-fated divine was hung and the poem published, hundreds of fine ladies and gentlemen read, and perhaps deplored, his watery blank verse, and thus most unexpectedly felt a transient interest in the question of prison discipline.
But a change has come over us since the days of Dr. Dodd and Faudleroy; though it would appear that the sympathy evinced by a certain section of the community for murderers is still extanct.
The Rev. John Clay, who was for many years chaplain of Preston Gaol, in discussing the question of prison discipline, says: “If we regard the prisoner as a moral patient, the paramount object is to render him as amenable as possible to the reformatory process. The tendency of separate confinement is to lower the bodily organs and weaken the faculties.
“The discipline must be modified to correct this tendency. The prisoner probably lived a life of gross animal indulgence.
“Accordingly his animal propensities must be first lulled to sleep; this is most effectually done by the repressing power of isolation.
“Plenty of fresh air, therefore, brisk exercise, and suitable diet are necessary.
“If the diet is too low, it will turn depression into despondency; if too high, it will produce excitement and irritability.
“The god of criminals is their belly, and to baulk the belly god to the utmost extent is both wise and just.
“In consequence of lowering the vital energies, the brain becomes more feeble, and therefore more susceptible.